Reporting:

The whole purpose of my trip was to gather information, insights, resources, and contacts for our local churches' rural/small-church ministries. "A Mission from God," as the Blues Brothers call it. Because the vision was large and the budget small, it was possible only with the generosity of many; first among these were, of couse, Mudcatters.

I set out the first day for a UMC conference about building cooperative, multi-parish ministries. The history of these in our diocese and local area are not great, but this event promised to yield much in how they can be done, and I was not diasppointed. The UMCs were great about having an invading Episcopalian spy, and promptly adopted me, electing me secretary of their multi-state town & country association and piling me high with resource materials. Of course meetings are hard to juggle across the distances, and my suggestion about a discussion forum was immediately adopted for cyber-meetings and cyber-idea-exchanging. It didn't hurt when I talked in glowing terms about Mudcat, how musicians swap help and how in fact I would be sleeping at a number of Mudcatters' houses to make my ambitious trip possible. They also saw immediately that they could host one another for such trips, and of course my house turns out to be a halfway point for many of the farthest-traveling to their annual meeting in Western PA! :~)

My milk-crate now half-full of donated books, with more than two weeks of trip and two conferences yet to go, I got on the road for my first MudStop-- a return to Chez Hollowfox and her GREAT kids. Foxy and I went out for a wonderful fish fry on the way to her house, and once there I got reacquainted with H'fox and cats in short order. You must ask H'fox about the Maori youth troupe she kidnapped for a night on a tour they were on.

Last time we stayed there, she gave me her bed (near single upstairs bathroom, and good for health issues I had then). Being in better shape now, this time I had brought a bedroll, my huge softrunk of pillows, and !Voila! Le Pee Buckette. La Fox roasted a chicken (yum!) and I made couscous to go with it. Garlic Liquer in the sauce, hm, also yum! From there on, a too-brief visit with the kids after school ("Wizzy's here, Wizzy's here!", a few of Ohio's really-nasty TV campaign ads, some Japanese anime's, and a brief but sound sleep on the commodious couch.

(We squeezed in a talk about ministry in there somewhere, too, and the challenges of getting youth involved in things adults think are good for them. This first MudVisit set a pattern that continued at each MudStop-- they turned out to be of a whole with the purpose of the trip, every time! And very ecumenical, too as you will see in the rest of the report's installments!)

Morning tea and pee-bucket emptying came all too soon, but being as I was on a mission, I got on the road for Kaintuck pretty quick... after entrusting her oldest with the Halloween goodies I'd brought, for distribution to the sibs. Foxy led me through the confusion of roads back to the interstate and off I went, playing one of the CDs she'd given me and hoping to meet up with Clan Spaw in due course.

~Susan